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Rob Fenn

Head of Human Rights and Democracy Department, FCO

Part of UK in Brunei

13th February 2013 London, UK

Regatta Brunei 2013

Be careful what you wish for.

That mantra went round and round in my head as I and twelve other Excellencies paddled down the Brunei River, vainly trying to catch the boat in front, urged on by friendly cheering (or was it laughter) from every jetty, doorway and window of Kampong Ayer – Brunei’s Water Village.

Scroll back to last year, “Regatta 2012”, and I admit I did fantasise about taking part. The sight of those majestic, many-oared, war canoes carving their way down the river was exhilarating. I wanted to get closer to such living history.

So when the Ministry of Home Affairs approached me, as Acting Dean of the Diplomatic Corps, and asked whether I would assemble a team of High Commissioners and Ambassadors for the “Special Race” – the event graced by His Majesty the Sultan and other members of the Royal Family – there was only one answer I could give.

I was delighted and relieved that twelve other Heads of Mission rose to this challenge – a credit to the spirit of teamwork and companionship which pervades the Diplomatic Corps in Bandar.

Would that teamwork translate onto the water? We found out during three practice sessions in a boat borrowed from the police, with experts from the RBP Rowing Team to drill us. Three beautiful evenings on the water, followed by several days of aching backs and shoulders. Paddling uses a different set of muscles than are usually called on in diplomatic life (where we mainly exercise our jaws). This was the first time I have felt envy towards my colleagues who play golf. They seemed fitter, somehow.

The great day came, and we had an intimidating morning in the viewing stand on the Royal Wharf, watching Bruneian and visiting teams show us how it was done.

At 1330 we reported to our boat and clambered in. It was lighter and a good deal less stable than the one we’d practised in. A tug took us up-stream to the starting pontoon – which was just as well, or we would have expired before the race got under way. We had barely backed our boat into the dock when the klaxon sounded and we were off.

Pure adrenalin and competitive spirit dredged up from our school days surged through twelve diplomats “of a certain age”. We set a completely unrealistic pace at the start – confused by the chants and rhythmical splashing from the other boats – and somehow managed to keep going at or near that pace for the next 1,000 meters. In our practice sessions, we had only ever managed 100 consecutive strokes before collapsing.

The race went by in a blur. That’s also how it looks on this home movie below, because there was a lot of water on the lens. But we did not disgrace ourselves. And no one drowned. “As long as it was fun”, HM said when handing us our medals. “It was, Your Majesty”, I could honestly reply.

1 comment on “Regatta Brunei 2013”

  1. Rob,

    Thanks, great film. Now I know which direction you will take once you leave FCO. About the “no one drowned”, I would not have gotten on the boat if the sinking of the boat had taken place before ours, and to think, they were from one of the uniformed services!!!

    Enjoyed it thoroughly, and I still worry, did we do an undiplomatic thing by beating the Perm Secs?

    Ralte

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About Rob Fenn

Rob Fenn has been Head of the FCO’s Human Rights and Democracy Department since March 2014. His last formal responsibility for human rights was in the mid 1990s, when he…

Rob Fenn has been Head of the FCO’s Human Rights and Democracy Department
since March 2014. His last formal responsibility for human rights was in
the mid 1990s, when he served as UK Delegate on the Third Committee of
the General Assembly in New York (with annual excursions to what was
then the Commission on Human Rights in Geneva). Recent celebrations of
the twentieth anniversary of the creation of the post of UN High
Commissioner for Human Rights – a resolution he helped pilot through the
GA – came a shock. The intervening 20 years have flown: in Rome
(EU/Economics), in London (Southern European Department), in Nicosia
(Deputy High Commissioner) and latterly in Bandar Seri Begawan.
Rob,
Julia and their two sons loved Brunei, where British High Commissioners
are made especially welcome. The family’s activities included regular
walks in the pristine rainforest, expeditions upriver to help conserve
the Sultanate’s stunning biodiversity, and home movie making (in Brunei
it is almost impossible to take a bad photograph).
After
all those saturated colours, Rob worried that the move back to Britain
might feel like a shift into black and white. But the reunion with
family, friends and colleagues, and the boys’ brave reintegration into a
North London school, have been ample compensation. Julia’s main regret
is that, now she walks on Hampstead Heath, she no longer has an excuse
to carry a machete (“parang”).
Rob’s
problem is summed up in two types of reaction from friends outside the
office. On hearing that he is “in charge of human rights and democracy
at the FCO”, some think it sounds like a vast job: what else is there?
Others think it sounds wishy-washy: not in the national interest. Rob’s
mission is to take the Foreign Secretary’s dictum that “our values are
our interests”, and help his colleagues translate it into action in a
world so varied it can contain both Brunei’s clouded leopard and the
civil war in Syria.

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